


Don't Stop Me Now

by KinoKahn



Category: Free!
Genre: 1980S GLAM-ROCK COVER BAND AU, Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinoKahn/pseuds/KinoKahn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa was unsurprisingly failing out of college, and he decided the only way out of this mess shot of doing actual work was to start a 1980s glam rock cover band and try to win some prize money.  Rin isn't going down without an unprovoked fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“So I signed us up for a battle of the bands,” Nagisa said, plopping down at the kitchen table. Makoto looked up from his books. Rei stopped typing on his laptop. Haru continued carefully cleaning his hookah.

“You did what?” Makoto said slowly, shutting _Red Badge of Courage_ on his pen.

“We’re signed up for a battle of the bands at that weird hipster bar down the street,” Nagisa said. He pulled a stack of books towards him and set his head down on them. “Man, I need a nap.”

“Why would you do that?” Makoto asked. 

“Need money,” Nagisa yawned. “Lost my scholarships.”

“So study more!” Rei snapped. “You need at least a 2.5 GPA and if you can’t manage that—”

“When is this battle of the bands?” Makoto sighed. 

“It’s in like a month,” Nagisa said, smiling as his eyelids drifted down. “Plenty of time to practice.”

Rei turned, mouth dropping open in horror. “Are you seriously going to do this? He’s a horrendous student and these are the consequences! Why should _we_ spend valuable study time playing in a _concert_ because Nagisa doesn’t do his homework?”

Nagisa cracked an eye. “You won’t help a friend in need, Rei? That’s cold.”

“This is _your own fault_!” Rei shrieked.

“Shhh,” Haru said. “Too loud.” He wiped at a thumbprint on the glass body of his hookah, eyes almost crossing with concentration.

Rei blinked at him, then turned back to Nagisa. “This is the stupidest idea you have ever had,” he said quietly. “Why should we bail you out by winning a battle of the bands? Who even says we’re going to win?”

Nagisa sat up and pushed his honey-colored hair out of his eyes. “Well, the three of us were all in a rock band camp when we were kids. And I know you took drums in high school.”

Rei blushed. “It was relaxing,” he told Makoto and Haru.

“I think we can do it,” Nagisa said with a shrug. “It doesn’t hurt to try, anyway. We can all jam out together! And if we fail, I just never ever see you guys again.” He looked at all of them with a bright smile. “Ever,” he added, staring at Makoto.

Makoto looked on the verge of tears. “Of course we’ll help!” he said. “Of course we will! Right Haru?”

Haru shrugged, setting his hookah on the table with a click. 

“I bet there’ll be enough of the prize money left over for a half-brick of hash,” Nagisa added.

Haru looked up and nodded. “I’m in.”

“Awesome!” Nagisa said. “And Rei, you’re in too, right?”

Rei was glaring at him. “No. I have midterms to study for, I have two major research papers to write, and I’m working double shifts for the next month to cover my _own_ tuition. I don’t have time for—”

“I will do that thing,” Nagisa said solemnly.

Rei’s brow wrinkled. “What?”

“I will do that thing you mentioned last Thursday evening.”

Rei turned very, very red. “…Really?”

“Yes,” Nagisa said.

“…That would be beautiful.”

“So you’re in?”

Rei couldn’t look anyone in the eye. “Uh, yes. I’m in.”

“Gimmie your computer, Rei!” Nagisa yelled, shoving the other man aside and dragging the PC towards himself. “Gotta post this on Facebook! We’re gonna _rock_!”


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh _hell_ no,” Rin snarled, grabbing his computer’s screen and glaring at it.

“What is it, senpai?” Nitori asked, poking his head over the top bunk.

“What the fuck does that _mean_?” Rin roared. “Stop calling me that, you fuckin’ weeaboo!”

Nitori ducked back down. “Sorry.” He waited a moment, then peeped out again. “But what is it?”

“They got the band back together,” Rin said, rubbing his face with both hands. “They’re gonna play a concert and everything. _Fuck_.”

“Who are these guys?” Nitori asked, leaning out precariously to see Rin’s computer screen.

“Dudes I went to school with,” Rin said. He shut his computer screen. “Goddammit. And their band name is so cool, too.”

“You were in a band, senpai?” Nitori asked.

“Yeah, I guess. We played in a summer camp together. It was pretty fun.”

“What did you play?”

Rin’s face twisted. “I sang.”

Nitori smiled. “I bet you were awesome. I heard you at karaoke last week and you were really good!”

“Eh,” Rin shrugged. “It’s hard to show off a vocal range with ‘Get Low.'”

“I liked it,” Nitori said quietly, wrapping his arms around his shins and blushing.

“Thanks, man.” Rin opened his computer again and glared at the Facebook status. “How can they do this without me?” he muttered to himself.

Nitori leaned back and stared up at the poster of _Karneval_ hanging above his bed. “Um, you, you could start a band, senpai. I’m a music major, and I can play the—”

“Yes!” Rin yelled, slapping his laptop shut again. “I’m gonna go get people to be in my band and we’re gonna kick Haru’s ass! And the rest of their band’s ass, too! We’re gonna fucking _rock_!” He ran out of the room.

Nitori heard Rin’s voice echo down the halls of the frat house. “Hey! You! You’re in my band! We’re meeting tomorrow at 5 and I’ll bring beer! And you! You’re in it too!” 

Nitori rolled over until he was tucked up against his body pillow. “At least you’re here for me,” he sighed into the back of a shirtless anime man painted on the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

The inside of the garage was colder than outside, so Makoto left the garage door open as they set up their instruments and amplifiers. They had to push aside stacks of boxes from when the four of them had moved in to clear a space. None of them could afford a car, so the garage had become the default storage space.

“I am so glad you still had all of the old instruments, man,” Nagisa said, slapping Makoto on the back. “And it was super nice of your mom to bring ‘em over.”

“You mother makes fantastic lasagna,” Rei said, cleaning sauce off of his face with a napkin.

“I’ll tell her when I call her this weekend,” Makoto said, smiling.

“Are we going to play” Haru asked, “or do I have time to smoke a bowl?”

“I think we’re ready,” Rei said. He shuffled behind the drum kit. “Um, this is kind of…small.”

“They’re from when we were freshmen in high school,” Nagisa said, trying to tune his little guitar with his elbows tucked in. “We hadn’t hit puberty yet.” 

Makoto’s bass guitar looked like a ukelele. No one in Makoto’s family played an instrument any more, but Makoto’s mother had brought over her daughter’s old rainbow xylophone and a tambourine. Haru was holding the xylophone mallets and staring into space, eyelids at half-mast over his blue eyes.

Nagisa turned to face everyone. “All right, guys, let’s start the first official practice for Assjack!”

Makoto and Rei both winced. “Did you have to call us that?” Makoto asked. “It sounds so…rude.”

Nagisa shrugged, grinning. “I felt inspired! Remember how we used to call ourselves the Jackrabbits? We’re getting older, man, we gotta step up our image!”

“Oh. Well, that’s… sweet, I suppose,” Makoto said. “What are we going to play first? I think I can still remember a few of the songs from camp—”

“I signed us up as a Journey cover band,” Nagisa said. “Do you wanna play ‘Separate Ways’?”

“We’re going to be playing other people’s songs in a battle of the bands concert?” Makoto said. “Oh. I thought we’d be playing originals…”

“Are you still writing those love ballads?” Nagisa said, grinning. “Nah, it’s a battle of the coverbands. Didn’t I say? And we just _gotta_ do glam rock, it’s the fuckin’ _bomb_. Let’s do ‘Any Way You Want It’! One, two three—”

“Um.”

Nagisa sighed heavily. “Yes, Rei, what is it?”

“Can you, uh. Close the door to your room?”

Nagisa glanced over at his door. He had the basement to himself and at some point, the cracked-out architect who had designed their college house all those decades ago had decided that the basement needed to connect to the garage. Technically, the only way into the garage from the house was through Nagisa’s room. No one went that way. If ever anyone needed to store something, park something, or practice songs together as a band, they opened the rolling garage door instead. Nagisa’s room was designated as a quarantine zone (he had the obnoxious yellow ‘biohazard’ signs saying so), but now his door was cracked open about a foot. “Why?”

“Um.” Rei was staring down at his sneakers, cheeks pink. “We can see your, uh. Your sex toys.”

Nagisa’s grin was wicked. “They’re no threat to you.”

“Fight Club,” Haru said without looking at anyone. 

Makoto edged over and pulled the door shut, politely averting his eyes from Rei’s fire-engine blush.

“You good now?” Nagisa asked Rei. Rei glared at him. Nagisa rolled his eyes. “Okay, where was I? ‘Any Way You Want It,’ guys. One two three four!”


End file.
